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Sabtu, 03 Oktober 2020

Trump 'well' in hospital as more Republicans test positive for COVID-19 - CNA

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump woke Saturday (Oct 3) from his first night in the hospital as a COVID-19 patient and said he was doing well, as key Republican allies announced their own positive tests a month before the US election.

Three senators as well as Trump's campaign manager and other senior aides are among a growing list from the president's orbit to have contracted the virus, with at least seven confirmed cases tied to an event in the White House Rose Garden last weekend.

With Trump, who is trailing in the polls, knocked off the campaign trail for treatment Walter Reed army medical center outside Washington - and possibly for many days after - his campaign plans were in disarray ahead of a potentially messy election on Nov 3.

Among the unknowns were the prospects for two remaining presidential debates and whether the president will have to yield power temporarily to Vice President Mike Pence if his condition worsens.

"Going well, I think! Thank you to all. Love!!!" Trump said in his first tweet from the hospital late Friday.

READ: Trump to spend days at military hospital after COVID-19 diagnosis

READ: Former White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway tests positive for COVID-19

He had walked out of the White House under his own power - and wearing a mask, which is rare for the world's most prominent pandemic skeptic - to be taken to the hospital.

In an 18-second video recorded inside the White House and released on Twitter, Trump broke his silence, saying he was being hospitalized but "I think I'm doing very well."

"We're going to make sure that things work out," he said, adding that First Lady Melania Trump - who also contracted the virus - was "doing very well."

But much remains unknown about his exact symptoms - described by the White House as mild - and how he caught the virus.

Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump was receiving the anti-viral drug remdesivir following consultation with specialists and not requiring any supplemental oxygen.

She said medical experts recommended he work from presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days as a precaution.

The New York Times reported Saturday that Trump is experiencing coughing, congestion and fever and that these symptoms worsened over the course of Friday.

The president uncharacteristically stayed off Twitter almost all day Friday.

READ: Trump and 2 senators test positive for COVID-19, Congress reconsiders testing its own

READ: COVID-19: White House National Security Council tells staff members wear masks in common areas and avoid West Wing

BIDEN OUT ON HIS OWN

Heightening the sense of crisis at the heart of power in America, a third Republican senator, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, announced on Saturday that he had tested positive.

Former White House top aide Kellyanne Conway and Trump's campaign manager, 42-year-old Bill Stepien, have also tested positive. So have two other Republican senators - Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Mike Lee of Utah.

The latter two sit on the chamber's Judiciary Committee, which is slated to hold hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, Trump's conservative nominee to fill a vacant seat on the Supreme Court.

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie became the latest to test positive for the coronavirus and will be receiving medical attention.

"I want to thank all of my friends and colleagues who have reached out to ask how I was feeling in the last day or two," Christie wrote on Twitter.

Public health experts have expressed alarm at the number of cases that appear linked to a celebration of Barrett's nomination at the Rose Garden on Sep 26.

READ: Biden, once mocked by Trump, now the only man on campaign trail

At least seven people who attended have now tested positive, including Trump, first Lady Melania Trump, Conway, Tillis, Lee and University of Notre Dame President John Jenkins.

These are uncharted waters for the US election with Trump - who is well behind his Democratic opponent Joe Biden in the polls - having to freeze much of his campaign.

Biden now finds himself alone on the campaign trail - and able to argue that his more cautious approach to COVID-19 has been vindicated.

Biden has made Trump's frequent downplaying of the pandemic and mixed messaging on mask-wearing a central campaign theme, while Trump has tried to shift the narrative to areas where he feels stronger, like the economy.

The former vice president, who stood on a stage with Trump for 90 minutes during their ill-tempered first debate Tuesday, announced that he and his wife Jill tested negative Friday.

Underlining his sudden advantage in the bitter race, Biden, 77, traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan on Friday, going ahead with a previously scheduled campaign stop.

PRAYING FOR TRUMP

Biden said he was praying for Trump and his family, and his campaign announced it would take down all negative ads.

However, Biden also reminded voters that he has pushed consistently for a serious approach to the coronavirus, which has killed more than 208,000 Americans, unlike his opponent who has mocked the Democrat for his rigorous use of masks.

"Be patriotic," Biden told supporters in Michigan through a blue surgical mask. "It's not about being a tough guy. It's about doing your part."

The second Trump-Biden debate, scheduled for Oct 15, is now in some doubt.

News of Trump's infection came after one of his closest advisors, Hope Hicks, tested positive - sparking fears of a cluster of cases emanating from the heart of the White House.

Trump met with dozens of people through the week and reportedly went to a fundraiser in New Jersey after it was known that Hicks had contracted the virus.

Vice President Mike Pence and other senior figures tested negative. The White House said Coney Barrett was negative too.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

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2020-10-03 16:18:45Z
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'Worried we might lose him': UK minister on PM's bout with COVID-19 this year - CNA

LONDON: Britain's foreign minister Dominic Raab said he worried for Boris Johnson's life when the prime minister was hospitalised with COVID-19 in April.

Raab stood in for Johnson as for almost a month while the prime minister recovered. Johnson first became ill with the coronavirus in late March and ended up in intensive care at one point.

READ: As COVID-19 resurges, PM Johnson pleads with UK: Obey the rules

"I really worried we might lose him and I was worried for Carrie pregnant with baby Wilf," Raab is due to say at the virtual Conservative Party conference later on Saturday (Oct 3), reported the Times.

Johnson's fiancée Carrie Symonds was pregnant with their son at the time.

Raab's comments come hours after US President Donald Trump was taken to a military hospital near Washington after testing positive for the virus. Trump will work in a special suite at the hospital for the next few days, in what the White House called a precautionary measure.

With the US presidential election a month away, Raab told the newspaper that he had never met Trump's Democratic rival for the White House, former Vice President Joe Biden, or any of Biden's senior team.

READ: Commentary: Boris Johnson’s COVID-19 illness has made him more powerful

But he said he had good relationships with senior Democrats on Capitol Hill and the outcome of the election would not affect UK-US relations, the Times reported.

"The strength of the friendship between Britain and the US I think is in great shape whatever the outcome in November," he told the newspaper.

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2020-10-03 09:35:02Z
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Biden, once mocked by Trump, now the only man on campaign trail - CNA

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan: For months, Donald Trump mocked Joe Biden for his cautious campaigning during the coronavirus pandemic.

But with the president in quarantine from Friday after testing positive for COVID-19, his Trump train derailed for now, Democratic challenger Biden has the stage to himself one month before Election Day.

It is too soon to predict how Trump's diagnosis could impact the White House race, already the most turbulent US presidential battle of modern times and one repeatedly upended by history-making events.

But the irony of the latest twist in the septuagenarian showdown was lost on no one.

After all, just Tuesday night Trump doubled down on his ribbing of Biden for taking too many virus precautions.

"He could be speaking 200 feet away from you, and he shows up with the biggest mask I've seen," the 74-year-old Republican incumbent sneered.

In the early months of the pandemic, as Biden, 77, remained isolated in his Delaware home, Trump belittled "Sleepy Joe" for "hiding" in his basement - a charge his supporters lapped up and repeated ad infinitum.

But on Friday, Trump was the one hunkered down, receiving treatment at the Walter Reed military hospital after his positive diagnosis.

READ: Trump to spend days at military hospital after COVID-19 diagnosis

Biden mostly has been meticulous about avoiding crowds and wearing masks in public.

But he was on stage with the president during their off-the-rails debate, three nights before Trump's diagnosis.

Biden and his wife were quickly tested for the virus Friday. Minutes after their results came back negative, his team fired up the campaign jet and Biden flew to battleground Michigan, a key Rust Belt state that Trump claimed in 2016.

READ:Biden hits the campaign trail after negative test for COVID-19

The somber appearance at a labor union in Grand Rapids had only a few dozen people present and no visible personal interaction with voters.

But the message was clear: Biden is not letting Trump's diagnosis upend his own campaigning, which has ramped up recently including Wednesday's whistlestop train tour across Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Michigan voters who lined the road outside Biden's event offered their own take on recent developments, with one woman holding a small sign reading "Masks work."

Biden's speech, which he delivered wearing a face mask, focused on the economy but also touched on the day's bombshell headline.

"It's a bracing reminder to all of us that we have to take this virus seriously. It's not going away automatically," he said, perhaps a jab at Trump's repeated insistence that the virus will simply "disappear."

"But this can not be a partisan moment," Biden stressed. "It must be an American moment (when) we come together as a nation."

'BE PATRIOTIC'

Biden urged people to wear masks, wash their hands and practice social distancing.

"Be patriotic," he said. "It's not about being a tough guy, it's about doing your part."

Biden nevertheless refrained from direct criticism of his opponent, and ended his speech with warm wishes for his adversary.

"May God protect the first family and every family that is dealing with this virus," Biden said.

His campaign team said it was pulling all negative ads against Trump scheduled to air Friday.

Some pro-Biden voices wondered whether he should pull his punches when the president - who disparages Biden, attacks the integrity of mail-in ballots and trails in the polls - is on the ropes.

"Crush Trumpism, beat him. Put your ads back up. This is a fighting hour," Steve Schmidt, an anti-Trump former Republican strategist, tweeted Friday.

"Magnanimity and grace in victory. For now total political war."

Others recalled how Trump, at a rally four years ago, openly mocked Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton after she was treated for pneumonia during their 2016 race.

Biden only boosted his travel schedule in late August, after months of virtual events or in-person appearances not far from Wilmington.

READ: Trump to carry out duties 'without disruption' while recovering from COVID-19: US president's physician

READ: Trump's age, health woes raise his risk for COVID-19 illness

During that time, Trump criss-crossed the nation, holding rallies sometimes with thousands of attendees. These were held mainly outside, but few attendees wore masks.

With only 32 days to go before Election Day, Trump's campaign team announced that his events would either be virtual or postponed until further notice.

Meanwhile, Team Biden announced new events: His wife Jill visits Minnesota on Saturday, while ex-rival Senator Bernie Sanders stumps for him in New Hampshire.

And Biden's running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, was in Nevada on Friday. The 55-year-old tested negative on Friday - as did Vice-President Mike Pence, whom she is set to debate on Oct 7.

The next Trump-Biden showdown is scheduled for Oct 15 in Miami but it was unclear if that would take place.

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

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2020-10-03 08:23:25Z
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Trump remains in hospital for Covid-19, starts Remdesivir therapy and doesn't need oxygen, doctor says - The Straits Times

WASHINGTON (BLOOMBERG) - US President Donald Trump remains in a US military hospital outside Washington after contracting the coronavirus, as his physician said late Friday night (Oct 2) that the President was being treated with the antiviral drug Remdesivir and did not require oxygen.

As the day wore on, more and more prominent people in political circles revolving around Mr Trump tested positive for the virus. They include his campaign manager, Mr Bill Stepien, his former counsellor, Ms Kellyanne Conway and two Republican senators.

In a tweet, Mr Trump thanked Americans for their well wishes. "Going welI, I think! Thank you to all. LOVE!!!" he said.

Going welI, I think! Thank you to all. LOVE!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 3, 2020

He also spoke in a video he tweeted out: "We are going to make sure that things work out."

The White House said his symptoms were mild and that he would continue to work from a suite at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Maryland, but his hospitalisation heightened fears that his condition was more serious.

That Mr Trump, who is wary of doctors, agreed to go to Walter Reed is a sign of concern about his condition, several people familiar with the matter said.

Within the White House, several aides said they had received no more information about Mr Trump's condition than the public.

Earlier, White House physician Sean Conley issued a statement saying Mr Trump had been treated with a Regeneron Pharmaceuticals "antibody cocktail".

Regeneron shares spiked in late trading, rising more than 3 per cent after the market closed in New York.

The company's experimental treatment for Covid-19 hasn't been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but Regeneron confirmed in a statement that it had provided a a single dose of the medicine for Mr Trump's use after receiving a "compassionate use" request from the President's doctors.

There will be no transfer of power from Mr Trump to Vice-President Mike Pence while the President is in the hospital, White House spokesman Judd Deere said.

The helicopter flight to Walter Reed was the most dramatic moment in a day of dizzying developments in Washington sparked by the President's disclosure of his illness just a month before Election Day.

As the Trump campaign was scrapping most of its planned events, the President's Democratic challenger, Mr Joe Biden, was campaigning in the battleground state of Michigan, where he delivered a speech while wearing a face mask.

Mr Biden, who took part in a chaotic debate with Mr Trump on Tuesday, expressed wishes for a speedy recovery for both Mr Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, who also tested positive for the coronavirus, and said the diagnosis was a "bracing reminder" to take the disease seriously.

Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 2, 2020

Fresh anxiety over the virus continued to reverberate into Friday night. Mr Stepien, who was promoted to run the campaign this summer to help revive Trump's re-election bid, has been infected, a campaign spokesman said.

Mr Conway, who managed Trump's 2016 campaign before joining the administration, said she had tested positive.

"My symptoms are mild (light cough) and I'm feeling fine. I have begun a quarantine process in consultation with physicians," Ms Conway, who left the White House in August, wrote on Twitter.

The two Republican senators, Mr Mike Lee of Utah andMr Thom Tillis of North Carolina said that they, too, had tested positive.

Both sit on the Judiciary Committee, which is preparing for hearings on Mr Trump's nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. The senators and Ms Conway attended the Rose Garden ceremony last Saturday in which Mr Trump announced Mrs Barrett's selection.

Senate judiciary chairman Lindsey Graham, who said he had tested negative, insisted that the confirmation hearings would begin as scheduled on Oct 12, but Democrats expressed alarm that Republicans still weren't taking enough precautions against Covid-19 on Capitol Hill.

On Friday evening, several top staffers gathered outside to see the President off, wearing masks.

Mr Trump and the marine who saluted him as he boarded Marine One also wore masks.

US President Donald Trump and the Marine who saluted him as he boarded Marine One wore masks. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Face coverings had not been commonplace at the White House before Friday.

"Out of an abundance of caution, and at the recommendation of his physician and medical experts, the President will be working from the presidential offices at Walter Reed for the next few days," press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement.

Her statement wasn't issued until after financial markets closed in the US.

The drug that Mr Trump received at Walter Reed, Remdesivir, has been authorised to fight the virus in a number of countries.

It was cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration on May 1 for emergency use after research showed that the medicine, made by Gilead Sciences, helped hospitalised patients recover from Covid-19 more quickly than standard care alone.

Mr Trump and the First Lady had been in isolation at the White House since his diagnosis, which he announced after Bloomberg News reported that one of his closest aides, Ms Hope Hicks, had tested positive for coronavirus infection.

Mr Trump learnt of Ms Hicks's positive test on Thursday morning but continued with his planned schedule for the day, including a fund-raiser at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf resort that raised US$5 million (S$6.8 million) for his campaign, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr Trump and Ms Hicks had been in close contact in the days before her diagnosis. She travelled with him to the debate in Cleveland on Tuesday and to campaign events in Minnesota on Wednesday.

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2020-10-03 06:50:37Z
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Chinese vlogger dies after being set on fire by ex-husband - CNA

BEIJING: The tragic case of a rural livestreamer who died after being set alight by her ex-husband has triggered outrage over domestic violence on Chinese social media.

The 30-year-old woman, named Lamu, died on Wednesday (Sep 30) after efforts to save her life failed, according to a statement from police in Jinchuan county, in the remote northwest of Sichuan province.

She had more than 885,000 followers on Douyin - the Chinese version of TikTok - and regularly posted videos of her daily life foraging in the mountains, cooking and lipsyncing to songs dressed in traditional Tibetan clothing.

The police statement on Thursday confirmed earlier local media reports that she was doused in petrol and set alight at home by her ex-husband, surnamed Tang, on Sep 14. She was transferred to Sichuan Provincial People's hospital for treatment on Sep 17.

Lamu suffered burns to 90 per cent of her body, her sister told the Chengdu Commercial Daily.

Her ex-husband Tang reportedly attacked her while she was livestreaming and had a history of domestic violence, local media said.

He was detained on suspicion of intentional homicide, police said.

Lamu's fans had raised one million yuan (US$150,000) for her hospital treatment shortly after the attack, local media reported.

Tens of thousands of grieving followers left comments on her Douyin page, while millions of users on the Twitter-like platform Weibo demanded justice using the trending hashtags "Lamu case" and "Lamu died after being set on fire by her ex-husband" - which were later censored.

"Remove the 'internet celebrity' label, she is just an ordinary woman who unfortunately suffered domestic violence and was abused and threatened," read one comment with more than 28,000 likes.

Others called for her attacker to receive the death sentence.

Several other high-profile cases of domestic violence have sparked an outcry in China this year, with people calling on lawmakers to do more to seek justice for victims.

In June, a woman from Henan province was denied a divorce after she jumped out of a second-storey window to escape her husband's physical abuse, leaving her paralysed.

The court later granted the divorce after her case attracted nationwide attention on social media.

In June, the eastern city of Yiwu introduced a system that lets women check whether their fiance has a history of domestic violence, in a move hailed by women's rights advocates.

China only criminalised domestic violence in 2016, but the issue remains pervasive and under-reported, especially in underdeveloped rural communities.

Activists are worried that a recent change to China's civil code - which introduced a mandatory 30-day "cooling-off" period for couples wishing to divorce - may make it harder for victims to leave abusive marriages.

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2020-10-03 06:23:55Z
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Jumat, 02 Oktober 2020

North Korea's Kim wishes Trump recovery from COVID-19 - CNA

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday (Oct 3) sent a message of sympathy to President Donald Trump and his wife Melania, wishing they would recover from the COVID-19 illness, state media reported.

“He sincerely hoped that they would recover as soon as possible. He hoped they will surely overcome it," the Korean Central News Agency reported. “He sent warm greetings to them.”

Trump said Friday he and his wife had tested positive for the coronavirus, and leaders across the world have sent messages of goodwill to the couple.

READ: Trump, stricken by COVID-19, heads to military hospital

Kim and Trump once exchanged threats of total destruction and crude insults after North Korea in 2017 carried out a series of high-profile weapons tests aimed at acquiring an ability to launch nuclear strikes on the US. Trump had said he would rain “fire and fury” on North Korea and derided Kim as “little rocket man” on a suicide mission, while Kim responded he would “tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire.”

But they stopped such rhetoric and instead developed personal relationships after Kim abruptly reached out to Trump in 2018 for talks on the fate of his advancing nuclear arsenal.

They met three times, starting with a summit in Singapore in June 2018 that made Trump the first sitting US president to meet a North Korea leader since the end of the 1950 to 1953 Korean War. But their meetings made little headway since their second summit in Vietnam ended without any deal following disputes over US-led sanctions on North Korea.

Before their nuclear talks entered a stalemate, Trump said that he and Kim “fell in love.”

According to journalist Bob Woodward’s recently published book “Rage,” Kim, in a letter to Trump, called the US president “your excellency” and said he believed the “deep and special friendship between us will work as a magical force.”

Some observers said Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis would quell speculation that the two leaders could have planned an “October surprise” in arranging their fourth meeting ahead of the US presidential election in November.

Despite the deadlocked talks, Kim hasn’t lifted his self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests in an apparent effort to keep chances for diplomacy alive. North Korea's economy is believed to have worsened due to the sanctions and the pandemic that forced it to close its border with China, its biggest trading partner, in January.

North Korea has said there hasn’t been a single virus outbreak on its soil, a claim widely disputed by foreign experts

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2020-10-03 01:30:00Z
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Trump's Covid-19 diagnosis may win him some sympathy, but is a double-edged sword - The Straits Times

WASHINGTON - That US President Donald Trump has been hospitalised with Covid-19 has changed the conversation of the week to the pandemic, which continues to ravage America.

For him, that is a double-edged sword.

However, much the President tries to blame China and play up his early ban on travellers from China, the coronavirus is a sore point, a vulnerability.

He is already taking blame for bringing this upon himself while putting others at risk - tempting fate by mingling with aides and advisers, sometimes without mask, and holding events where people mingle without masks, which while relatively small still entail risk. The list of violations of recommended protocols is a long one.

To top it all, in Cleveland on Tuesday he mocked former vice-president Joe Biden for wearing a mask.

"Trump's approval on his handling of the pandemic was already dismal. Now attention will be refocused on his personal recklessness that put others at risk," wrote political analyst Taegan Goddard, founder of the newsletter Political Wire. "The video clips of Trump downplaying the pandemic are endless."

There is thus plenty of ammunition to use against him, and this episode calls attention to his failures.

It also has a wider silver lining though - refocusing much needed attention on the pandemic, which serves as a wake-up call to the complacent.

Covid-19 cases are ticking up again. Last week Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said: "We're looking at 40,000 new cases per day. That's unacceptable and that is what we've got to get down before we go into the more problematic winter."

US President Donald Trump exits Marine One while arriving to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland, on Oct 2, 2020. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

Meanwhile, allegations - which he has rejected - that the President has paid little or no income tax; that he derided America's war dead; that the First Lady in a tape recording derided Christmas; and his debate performance, have all been booted from the news cycle.

The Trump campaign is now busy making alternative arrangements to move the President's campaigning online. On the cards are phone and video calls.

Also on the cards is making Vice-President Mike Pence step up campaigning (he is due to face Senator Kamala Harris in their only debate encounter on Oct 7, and they will be 3.6m apart) to keep up the momentum.

But much is predicated on an unknown - the condition of the President.

If he emerges unscathed, he will be emboldened and his heroic image with his devoted base which sees him as a sort of gladiatorial figure, will only be reinforced.

This may not get him any significant wave of sympathy votes from beyond his base, but it will not hurt him in the polls, in which he has been consistently, albeit narrowly, behind Mr Biden.

Separately, poll data cruncher Nate Silver of the Five Thirty Eight website said: "At a very basic, square-one level, Covid-19 is a huge liability for the President, and so placing more focus on Covid-19 probably isn't great for him.

"But... could Trump getting Covid-19 change his messaging around the virus and pandemic? Maybe. But this is Donald Trump... he's not inclined to be overly disciplined or deferential to scientists, etcetera. He's pretty unpredictable, and we don't yet know a lot about how serious his symptoms are."

Five Thirty eight senior writer Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux said: "I think what happens with public opinion really depends on how sick Trump gets.

"A big part of the reason Republicans are not as into Covid-19 restrictions is that they are much, much less likely to view the virus as a personal health threat to them. Research has indicated that Trump downplaying the virus is probably a significant driver of that."

It could play out at least two ways, she added.

"Trump gets moderately or very sick and this does prompt Republicans to think... this actually is serious and if it could happen to Trump it could happen to me.

"Trump remains mostly asymptomatic and it bolsters the idea that this is actually not such a big deal."

Film-maker Michael Moore, who in 2016 predicted that Mr Trump would win, wrote on Facebook on Friday: "He's losing the election. And he knows it. It's not 2016. He was hated in 2016, but he's hated even more now."

But Democrats, liberals, the media and others have always been wrong to simply treat President Trump as a buffoon, he wrote.

"He's also canny. He's clever... he knows being sick tends to gain one sympathy. He's not above weaponising this."

Sabtu, 03 Oktober 2020

Jumat, 02 Oktober 2020

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